Several dozen generations later and so far removed from the stain that the Ketsuryu left on Feudal Japan, the Himura family, a great dynasty of aristocrats, super family (emphasis on super) who led and almost pioneered the effectiveness of Japanese superheroes via their impressive technology and contributions to the advancement of biological studies within the gifted gene. Truly a far cry from the origins that so many allege the Himura Family come from. These origins are simply tales that conspiracy theorists and rival families back to discredit over a hundred years of achievements.

Kenji Himura, the oldest of two brothers, refused to stand by and let everything his father and grandfather worked so hard to establish so that his family of five: a wife, three sons, and a daughter, may find success within Himura Enterprises. These slanderous stories that they descended from savages, no matter how true, was not something to be celebrated in the modern age,b ut no matter how much he tried, Kenji could never quiet those who dared to discredit his family’s credibility and his company’s.

So he had them murdered.

This was Kenji Himura. A proud businessman. He is as tenacious as he is effective. The old ways of his ancestors may leave a bad taste in his mouth, but even he could admit that there was a reason the Ketsuryu were so infamous. EVen now, many stories inspired by their acts: stories that have been adapted into manga, into anime, into plays and even Americanized (though whitewashed to a disrespectful level), the story of the Ketsuryu Ichizoku is now essentially mythology.

And if that isn’t something Kenji Himura takes great pride in.

This ruthlessness just didn’t extend into business, however. Unfortunately, Kenji Himura was as ruthless with his children as he was with his rivals in the business world. As mentioned before, Kenji and his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather all made incredible strides for Japanese superheroes. Technological breakthroughs and breakthroughs in power development and assessment. Like those before him, they were obsessed into analyzing the science of what made a gifted so powerful. This obsession took many forms but, for Kenji, it meant using live human test subjects. Those who had the gene. Many in Japan went missing because of his efforts. Using every single one as lab rats for what became the success stories. These success stories were made possible through a cashe of blood samples that were not just from any source, but the Cashmores. Once proud and loyal business partners with the Himura family were now just another stepping stone for Kenji and at some point he...acquired samples of Cashmore blood to use in his experiments and to make his success stories undoubtedly legendary.

And those success stories? His four children.

His two oldest - twin boys, Ichiro and Genji - were the first. They showed excellent promise in not just their potential for powers but natural-born killers. They excelled at everything from swordfighting, martial arts, killing tactics, and just so much more. Both had the powers of heightened condition and senses, which only added to their fierceness.

In the case of the third born, Kenji’s daughter, Ayame, they considered her a too-gentle-for-this-world kind of girl. Powerful as she was and she was indeed terrifying in her potential, the tests that Kenji and his team of scientists ran on her broke her mind. Ayame possessed a gentle and powerful, yet splintered mind. She tested low on most combat tests, but she was insanely intelligent and that manifested in the form of pure psionics. Raw psychic power fuelled by emotions. It was at the point that she caused widespread destruction: sent chairs and tables and heavy machinery to the walls, almost completely destroyed the underground facility underneath the Himura mansion with a shear force of will. If it hadn’t been for the microchip that Kenji had implanted in all of his children that would send a minor, yet effective, electric pulse that would knock out her own, death would have been the immediate future for everyone in the area.

But the pulse wasn’t enough. Ayame, who was incredibly close to her younger brother (only younger by 3 years) resisted until Ryusuke was brought in personally. He didn’t have to say much. Just his voice alone calmed her. Ryu, for all of his disappointments in Kenji’s eyes, had this ability to make Ayame feel safe.

If only Ayame could have been that for Ryu.

You would think that Ryusuke Himura wouldn’t have anything to complain about, right? He was the baby of four children that were born to Kenji and Sayuri Himura. Two older brothers and one older sister. The baby always has it easiest, right? Not as much pressure put on him. Not as much light was shown on him because his older siblings would be in the spotlight whereas he would be able to do whatever he wanted (within reason).

But none of them had to deal with the fact that, in Kenji Himura’s eyes, Ryu being the youngest didn’t mean he would be ignored. The truth of the matter was, Ryusuke faced the worst that Kenji had to offer. His dreams were made reality with his two oldest sons. They inherited their father’s brutality and Kenji wanted to repeat that success in his youngest son. But Ryusuke wasn’t built like Ichiro or Genji. He wasn’t a murderous monster like them. He didn’t want to kill nor did he want to indulge in overtly-violent acts. He was more like his mother, who was sweet and tender-hearted but also had a love and a thrill for adventure.

And that was something that lit a fire under Kenji’s ass to the point where the frustrations he had about it all only made the training and punishment that Ryu endured for fifteen years like an endless loop of hell.

From an early age, it was evident that Ryu didn’t have the same ferocity that Kenji had nor did he have what Kenji wanted. He wanted all of his sons to be ruthless killers int heir own right. Publicly the family was not related nor embodied by the Ketsuryu, but privately[, the murderous spirit reigned supreme in Kenji Himura and it was that same vile hatred of human life that fuelled the rigorous training that Ryu had to endure. Whether it was physical conditioning, power development, and so many times spent with a needle injected into it -- a needle, mind you, that was pumping weird substances into his body -- that Ryu spent more and more time with his father watching from behind a one-way window-mirror than with anyone else. The more time being spent as a lab rat by his own father, the more Ryu came to resent him. But he couldn’t do anything about it. Both he and Ayame were in the same boat.

Both had incredible powers and potential (Kenji’s own words), but they needed each other. Brother and sister needed each other because as much as Ryu hated Kenji, he had been the only person who could calm Ayame down.

The training and abuse continued for several years until there was one night where every thing changed. Nothing about this night seemed like it was necessarily bad. It was one of those regular days -- rare days, at that -- where Kenji did not torture his children. Ryu and Ayame spent time with their mother, who had fallen ill in recent weeks. She was bed-ridden but all the two could do was sty by their mother’s side. Time spent with Sayuri was some of the most cherished moments they both had.

But then everything went to shit when Sayuri passed away a week before her birthday in May.

And it wasn’t just because the Himura family lost their light, but Ayame specifically lost all sense of control of her emotions, of her powers, and most importantly of herself. It happened on May 15th, 2014, just a day after Sayuri’s memorial service. Eight years ago. Eight years ago when Ayame’s psionics became the death of the Himura family. The foundation of the mansion crumbled on itself. Kenji, Genji, Ichiro, Ayame, and (alleged) Ryu were buried in the wreckage.

It was said that during those final moments before widespread destruction came to the Himura compound, that Ayame’s screams could be heard in the distance and all throughout the entirety of Japan. It is also said that the spirits of those that were killed by Kenji Himura’s hired hands, Genji and Ichiro’s victims, and the thousands of victims slain by the Ketsuryu over 800 years ago were embodied in those final moments, their ire and desire for vengeance manifesting in Ayame’s grief.

But what hadn’t been expected and even more importantly, thought to be nigh impossible, was Ryusuke’s survival. Whether it was just dumb luck or truly a representation of his connection with Ayame and how out of everyone in the compound, which included his father and brothers, and the scientists who experimented on all children on Kenji’s orders, Ryu was the only one to survive. Ryu never made sense of that day even now. Over time, he believed that maybe Ayame’s powers only responded to whoever she wanted to kill and because he was so instrumental to her sanity and making her feel safe, that maybe that was what brought Ryu some sense of peace.

Truth be told, he may never understand how or why he survived, but when he did, at just fifteen, Ryu fled the compound, used whatever yen he had to his name, and bought a one-way ticket to California. He knew of one surviving family member - his uncle Kaito. Kaito was the older brother of Kenji. He was not like his father. He was a good man, unaffiliated with the company until his brother’s death, and the only person that Ryu had in this world when it came to family. Kaito always told Ryu that if he ever needed anything, that all he needed to do was call him.

Ryu had a different idea and showed up on his doorstep the day after his family literally was wiped off the face of the earth. He had nobody and Kaito took him in. Kaito had a family, too. A wife and two daughters, so Ryu would have a family. In the three years he lived with them, Ryu’s mannerisms were like of old and eventually he found his way into applying and being accepted into Crystal Peak Academy.

Despite his beginnings and the terrible thing that happened to him, Ryu went forward. Positivitiy and a never-quit attitude carried him as far as his senior year, a far cry of who he could have been. That was something he would never forget.